


When It Pours

by luckybarton



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Clint Barton is Gay, Dramatic, Fusion, Gay Tony Stark, Good Slytherins, Gryffindor Steve Rogers, Hogwarts Has A GSA, Remus Lupin Lives, Slytherin Clint Barton, Slytherin Tony Stark, Trans Male Character, Trans Steve Rogers, Trans Tony Stark, i'm a little bit sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 18:32:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15846960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckybarton/pseuds/luckybarton
Summary: It was Lupin who came forward to sponsor the Hogwarts GSA. Tony thought that was a bit weird, because ‘werewolf’ wasn’t a gender or a sexuality, but Clint had pointed out that Hogwarts had never had a professor who was openly a werewolf before—and was it really that different?





	When It Pours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lumelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/gifts).



It was Lupin who came forward to sponsor the Hogwarts GSA. Tony thought that was a bit weird, because ‘werewolf’ wasn’t a gender or a sexuality, but Clint had pointed out that Hogwarts had never had a professor who was openly a werewolf before—and was it really that different?

Tony tended to agree. Hogwarts had never had any openly queer professors, though Salazar Slytherin’s affairs were well documented. There were rumours around Dumbledore—and Snape, and McGonagall, and even Lupin—but they weren’t substantiated, and none of them had come forward. And if Lupin was, in fact, gay, he hadn’t told anyone. 

A werewolf professor had been difficult enough for some parents to deal with. Tony didn’t want to think about his father’s reaction to a  _ gay _ werewolf professor.

“If you go as a straight ally, people  _ are _ gonna think you’re gay,” Clint said. “Are you sure you want to come with me?”

Tony was sure, though he wasn’t straight—something he wouldn’t be able to explain to Clint without a whole lot of other explaining. Explaining that he wanted to do, but didn’t want to face the repercussions of. Clint would probably accept him. He knew that. Clint was muggleborn which was incredibly strange for a Slytherin—something that some of their housemates never ceased to mention. His Hogwarts letter had arrived at a group home. Hagrid had taken him to Diagon Alley to collect his school books the first time around. And on top of that, he’d been openly gay since fourth year.

If Tony could trust anybody, it was Clint. And yet, he hadn’t. He wasn’t sure he had the strength to.

The first GSA meeting was after classes ended on Thursday, which Clint said was good because if it had overlapped with Archery, Archery would have won.

“Clint. Tony,” Lupin said, as they entered a cozy-looking room Tony had never been in before. A few students were already there, scattered around a wooden table. Natasha, a Ravenclaw who Tony knew Clint was friends with, was already seated. There were a few others that Tony recognised as being from lower or higher years, but who he didn’t know the names of. Most of them were from other houses, in any case. The representation was basically proportionate. He was innerly grateful that Lupin had used the short form of his name, though the warm feeling faded as soon as he recognised the boy who had entered: Sworn Enemy, The Best Gryffindor Ever, Steve Rogers.

The first time Tony had met Steve was in first year. They’d shared a desk in Potions. They’d gotten along for about a week before starting a feud that culminated in an incident wherein neither of them would admit to dissolving the other’s homework. Tony had been switched to Clint’s desk. Tony and Clint got on fine, and the amount of times Tony had spoken to Steve since had been very limited. He couldn’t think of any other reason they didn’t get along, but he knew they didn’t, and that any interaction past 5 minutes would end in snarling.

“Steve,” Tony said.

“Nice to see you,” Steve said, without a hint of malice in his voice. “I didn’t know you were a lesbian.”

“It’s an alliance,” Tony said, and sat down. Steve sat down next to him. Clint took the other side and cast Tony a worried glance.

A few Hufflepuffs filtered in before Lupin closed the door to the room. “I’ve left a sign up,” he said. “If anyone else is coming, they’ll still be able to get in. Now, I take it you don’t all know each other.”

“No,” Natasha said, the only person to break the silence. “We don’t.”

“I’ll start by introducing myself, then,” Lupin said. “I’m Professor Lupin, and I teach Defence Against the Dark Arts—though I think you all knew that. I sponsor the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Hogwarts, which means that I supervise it and I need to be here when it meets. It also means that if you want to organise any school-wide events or outings, I’ll be able to help set them up.” He paused. “We’ll go counterclockwise. Steve, that means you’re first.”

“I’m Steve Rogers,” Steve said. “I’m in sixth year. I’m the leader of the Art Club, and I’m bisexual. I’m also a trans man,” He nodded to Tony.

“I’m Tony,” Tony said, the rest of the words he wanted to say gumming up in his mouth. After a pause, Clint started talking. The rest of the introductions passed without major incident, and Tony stayed fairly quiet through the rest of the meeting. According to Lupin and some of the muggleborn students, these clubs were fairly common in the Muggle world. This was the first GSA anyone was aware of at a wizarding school. 

“It's up to you what you want to do,” Lupin said. “You can just show up and talk, or we can have topics. We can even, as I said, hold events within the school and in Hogsmeade.”

“We could walk in the Hogsmeade pride parade,” someone suggested. 

“Hogsmeade doesn't  _ have _ a pride parade,” someone else pointed out. 

“Well,” Steve started, “I guess we know what we have to fix.” 

The parade was going to cost a fair amount of money that nobody seemed able to put forward. Tony felt guilty for not offering, but he knew that his father would not consider a pride parade—‘celebrating degeneracy’—a worthwhile cause. So, instead, the GSA settled on running a bake sale.

This was how Tony wound up elbow deep in batter the next Saturday, sharing a workstation in the Hogwarts kitchen with Steve Rogers and feeling a very strong sense of déjà vu. Tony still wasn't convinced that having the house elves do the baking wouldn't be the better solution: Steve (and all of the Hufflepuffs—Tony was starting to think that Steve would be The Best Hufflepuff as well as The Best Gryffindor) had insisted that the baked goods would mean more if they had been made by students. 

“You don't have any essays on the counter, do you?” Steve joked.

Tony froze, and laughed nervously. “Do you?”

Steve shook his head. “I can't believe we're laughing about that now.”

“Neither can I,” Tony said, and turned his attention to levitating globules of batter out of the bowl and into evenly sized trays.

“Do you think color charms are oven safe?” Steve asked. “I know you got a better Charms OWL than me.”

“Oh. Uh, I'd just do it after they bake,” Tony said. “The charm you use for food breaks after you eat it, anyway. I don't think it would survive the oven.” Once the cakes, pastries, and other assorted sweet things were in the oven, there was nothing to do but wait. Even with magic equipment, you couldn’t make food instantly. Tony spent the time catching up with Clint, who had made a formidable amount of cookies with Natasha.

“What surprises me the most,” Clint said, after ascertaining that Steve wouldn’t hear them talk, “is that neither of you killed each other.”

“I’ve reduced his rank,” Tony muttered. “He’s not my archenemy any more, just a minor villain.”

“You’ve acted kinda weird since the first meeting,” Clint said. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Tony said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Clint blinked. “Okay,” he said. “That sounds like it’s  _ something, _ but okay.” A bell started to ring, breaking Clint’s attention away from Tony. “That’s my oven.” Tony used the opportunity to get away—his timer went off shortly after, and he was soon busy taking cakes out of the oven, cooling them, and levitating them out of their trays. There were six layers in total, which Tony charmed different colours of the rainbow before Steve spread icing between them and stacked them on top of each other.

“It hardly even looks like a cake,” Tony said.

Steve shrugged. “I think it will sell.”

The bake sale was later that day, just before lunchtime. The food was priced very cheaply, Tony thought, but everything sold out. The pocket change of every student at Hogwarts added up to enough money to pay for the fee to host the parade in Hogsmeade—as well as advertise it and purchase materials for floats.

“Hogsmeade approved the parade,” Lupin announced at the next meeting. “Professor Flitwick has agreed to charm the floats, so hopefully none of them will fall out of the air.” Wizarding floats did, in fact, float—a fact which seemed to amuse the muggleborns among them. “We can crack on with building them next week.”

After the meeting, Tony pulled Clint into an empty classroom. “I don’t know if I want to attend the parade,” he admitted.

“Why not?” Clint asked, confused. “You know you can go as an ally—”

“I don’t want to go as an ally,” Tony said, forcing his voice to stay quiet. He closed his eyes. “Clint, I’m transgender.”

“Oh,” Clint said, quietly. “You could have just said.”

“I couldn’t have just said,” Tony said. “If word got back to my father—”

“—he wouldn’t be able to do anything,” Clint said. “I learned a lot about Wizarding law when I got moved to their system. Their discrimination laws are strong.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that he can’t take you out of school for it,” Clint said, “and if you wanted to, you could stay here in the term breaks and at Christmas. Which is what I do anyway.”

“And then in the summer, I go home and he kills me.”

“He won’t literally kill you.”

“He almost did when I cut my hair short.”

“You should talk to Lupin,” Clint suggested. “He would know what to do.”

“I can’t just talk to Lupin,” Tony protested. “I can’t talk to anyone. I didn’t even think I could talk to you.”

“But you did, so you can talk to Lupin,” Clint said. “Also, he’s one wall away from us and has mega-hearing, so you might not have to.”

Tony swore. “Professor Lupin, are you listening to us?”

“He’s not very well going to answer that, is he?” Clint said.

Tony groaned and covered his eyes with a hand. “Not knowing is worse.”

A few moments later, Lupin pulled the door open. “I’m sorry. I heard you talking. Tony,” he said, “that’s still your name?”

“Yeah,” Tony said. “The way I sign it. With a ‘Y.’”

“Tony,” Lupin said, “do you think you would be in danger from your father if you went home after coming out?”

“He wouldn’t shy away from Cruciatus,” Tony said. “Until he was sure I’d ‘turned.’”

Lupin barely concealed a reaction. “Do you know this?”

Tony looked away. “My mother didn’t just ‘go mad’. So I think I do.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Tony,” Lupin said. “I need to report that.”

“No,” Tony said, burying his face in his arms, “if he finds out I told you that, he’ll  _ really _ kill me.”

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Lupin suggested. “Clint, it’s probably best for you to return to your dorm.”

Clint left, hesitantly, and Tony shuffled down the hallway, only just keeping pace with Lupin. “Where are we going?”

“We’re seeing Madam Pomfrey for some chocolate,” Lupin said. “This is an occasion that requires it.”

Madam Pomfrey greeted Tony by his full name, causing Tony to burst into tears and Lupin to have a quiet word with her elsewhere. She’d given him a ridiculously large chunk of chocolate, which he sat on a bed with and ate quietly. Aside from him and the whispering adults across the room, the hospital wing was empty. After a few minutes that felt like much longer, Lupin and Madam Pomfrey returned.

“Tony, I’m going to need to ask you some questions,” she said, “and you’re going to need to answer them truthfully.”

Tony bit the chocolate and didn’t answer.

“Do you use, or have you used any magical means to help you in transition? To change your physical appearance, or otherwise.”

“Localised constriction charm,” Tony said. “I used Polyjuice once in third year. That’s it.”

“You shouldn’t use a constriction charm for binding,” Madam Pomfrey said. “Where did you learn the spell from?”

“Class. And then I modified it.”

Madam Pomfrey frowned, and made a motion with her wand. “I’m going to need to remove the charm. There’s a chance that this one might damage your ribs, and I can teach you a better one.”

“Okay,” Tony said, and winced as the charm was let go.

“You might feel a tug,” Madam Pomfrey said.

_ “Ow, _ ” Tony said. “What was that?”

“Your bones shifting back into place,” she said. “Unless someone’s bleeding out, never use a constriction charm on a human body. This,” she said, “will give the same effect, but for a shorter duration. You need to re-cast it daily.” She handed Tony a book containing a diagram.

“Every day, forever,” Tony said.

“Not forever,” Madam Pomfrey said. “There is a spell that can be used that will fully change your physical sex—but it’s about a hundred syllables long and the gestures for it are very finely tuned. A trained mediwizard has to perform it, or it has the possibility to go wrong. If you want me to, I can call one to come to Hogwarts and perform it. But I won’t unless you ask.”

Tony shook his head. “My father won’t allow it.”

“Your father doesn’t have to allow it. You’re 16—that’s old enough to make your own medical decisions,” Madam Pomfrey replied. “Now, I want you to practice using this new spell.”

Tony tried it. “What,” he said. “It  _ works.” _

The door to the infirmary swung open. Lupin walked through, followed by Dumbledore. Tony attempted to discreetly slide his hand off his chest.

“We contacted the Ministry via portrait,” Lupin said. “Tony, they want to send an Auror to talk to you.”

“To talk to me,” Tony repeated.

“About your father. They probably won’t need to ask many questions,” Lupin said. “Normally with this sort of investigation, they send a legilimens.”

“Ah,” Tony said.

“The Auror will arrive tomorrow,” Lupin said. “It’s late, and as Hogwarts can’t be apparated to, we’re having to make special arrangements. I’m sorry about this.”

Tony decided not to return to his dorm that evening. The thought of it was too much to bear, on top of everything else. He was excused from his classes for the first half of the day as well, as the Auror was arriving mid-morning.

It turned out that Tony didn’t talk to the Auror at all. A woman came into the infirmary and stared him in the eyes. He felt confused for a minute. Then, she left. He hadn’t known who she was until Madame Pomfrey told him that  _ that  _ had been the Auror, and yes, he could leave.

“Tony,” Steve called, as he stepped into the hallway. “I didn’t see you in Arithmancy.”

“I was busy,” Tony managed.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” Steve asked.

“No, I...” Tony started, glancing around. “Steve, I’m trans, and everything in my life is  _ fucked, _ and I really need to get to Potions.”

“Potions isn’t for a few minutes”, Steve said. “I’m on a free period. What’s up?”

“You’ll probably read about it in the Prophet,” Tony said. “Seriously. It’s fucked up.”

“Being trans is not fucked up.”

“That’s not the fucked up part, Steve.” Tony looked Steve in the eyes. “When did we start talking about our lives, anyway?”

“Since the bake sale. You were avoiding me, not the other way around,” Steve said. “But, okay, whatever. It’s fine to talk about our lives until something happens where we  _ might need to talk to another person _ and then, okay, no, it’s definitely not.”

“Well, thanks for making it sound that stupid,” Tony said, “not wanting to spill your life details to some guy you’ve hated for six years straight, so, yeah, fuck me, right?”

Steve blinked.

“Madame Pomfrey wants to tell her when I want to see a mediwizard about transition,” Tony said, “and my father is going to Azkaban. My entire family is just phobic in general, and I have  _ no idea _ where I’m going to be next summer. You wanted to know.”

“Sorry,” Steve said, looking down. “I had no clue.”

“You never do,” Tony said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to Potions.”

“Me too,” Steve said. Tony ignored him the entire way there.

Tony sat next to Clint and slumped down, letting his head hit the table.

“Are you okay?” Clint asked.

“What do you think,” Tony whispered. “What do you  _ think? _ We have DADA later. I don’t think I can  _ face _ Lupin.”

“Have something to say to the class, Miss Stark?” Snape asked.

Tony flipped his cauldron and left.

It felt somewhat ironic to retreat to the girls’ dorm, but it seemed unlikely anyone else would visit them during the day—so Tony decided it would be the safest place to hide. The dormitory disagreed. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps into the entrance when it violently threw him out, leaving him wheezing on his back.

“My stuff’s in there!” he shouted, once he’d regained his breath. He stood up just as the dormitory obliged: all of his belongings came whizzing out, flying quickly through the air before hitting him in the chest at an alarming speed and knocking him back over. This time, the fall sent him directly onto his tailbone, causing an all-encompassing bolt of pain to shoot up his spine. He wasn’t sure how far his scream had carried, but the echo continued for too long to suggest that it had been a particularly short distance. Some concerned person would come, see the situation, and then he’d have to explain himself. On top of that, he didn’t really know what had happened in the first place.

The best thing to do, he decided, was to move somewhere else. The problem was, movement in any direction led to pain—and the items scattered around him posed a second problem. He rolled onto his stomach with great care and soon found that staying in that position was the simplest. He reached for his wand and cast a levitation charm on the items, keeping them in the air as he army-crawled away from the dormitory. 

_ “Tony?” _ It was Clint. Tony could only see his feet, but he knew it was Clint.

“Clint,” Tony said, feeling shame creep across his skin. “I, uh.”

“Are you okay?” Clint asked, kneeling beside him. “Did somebody attack you? Because I’ll—”

“The dormitory attacked me,” Tony cut in. “I tried to walk in, then it threw me out, then it threw my stuff out, then I fell over, and it  _ hurts, _ and I was trying to escape, and  _ how are you even here?” _

“Told Snape I needed the toilet,” Clint said. “He wouldn’t let me leave, so I said I’d piss in my cauldron, and he  _ actually docked points from Slytherin, _ but, whatever. And this was the closest place I thought you’d be, so.”

“Oh,” Tony said.

“Can you stand up?” Clint asked, offering an arm.

Tony put his things down and took Clint’s arm, but failed to pull himself up. He groaned. “I don’t think this is happening.”

“It  _ threw you out,” _ Clint stated.

“That’s what happened,” Tony said, attempting, this time successfully, to get up.  _ “Ow.” _ He staggered slightly before Clint caught him by the arm.

“You need to get to the hospital wing,” Clint said. “If I put my arm across your back, we can get there more easily. See?”

“Snape’s gonna kill you,” Tony muttered as they hobbled away from the dorm entrance.

“I’ll say I got lost in the toilet,” Clint said. “It’s dumb, but he’ll take that better than ‘helping a friend’, for sure.”

“I— _ ow _ —don’t think so,” Tony said. “Call it, um. House pride?”

“This is a  _ Hufflepuff _ kinda thing to be doing,” Clint said.

Tony took a misstep and groaned. “Hufflepuff wouldn’t skip a class.”

“Point made,” Clint said. “Can I switch arms? You’re heavy.”

They made it to the hospital wing eventually—Madam Pomfrey gave Tony a potion to fix his tailbone, but told him he’d be in bed resting until at least the next morning anyway.

“You can go back to your dormitory,” she suggested. Tony didn’t take her up on it.

Lupin visited, later. “Rumour tells me your dorm exploded.”

“Not really,” Tony said, and explained the situation. “I think Clint collected my stuff,” he finished lamely. “And I think Snape plans to kill me.”

“He won’t,” Lupin said, shortly. “In any case, boys aren’t allowed in the girls’ dormitories, so I doubt it’ll be letting you back.”

Tony blinked. “But I haven’t—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Lupin said. “And you can’t really try to convince the enchantment to change its mind. I’ve seen people try.”

“I can’t go to the boys’ dormitory,” Tony said. “Nobody knows except you and Clint and Madam Pomfrey and... Steve, okay? And my family’s still my family, and  _ this isn’t what I wanted to happen.” _

“To put it bluntly, the dorm explosion isn’t the only story the rumour mill is spinning,” Lupin said. “I’m not going to out you. But you need to make a decision—you can deny, remain closeted, and sleep somewhere else—or you can come out and have the full support of the staff behind you. There isn’t really an option three.”

Tony grimaced. “I’ll do it. As soon as I work out how.”

An extra meeting of the GSA was called the next day, under the pretense of ‘having more time to work on the floats’. It wasn’t really a pretense, seeing as they really were going to work on them, but Tony still felt slightly guilty. Every member had showed up—and after Lupin had finished talking about float specifications, Tony shakily raised his hand.

“Tony?” 

“I need to tell everyone something,” he said, after a moment. The words felt stuck in his mouth, but he forced himself to say them. “My name is Tony Stark,” he said. “Anthony Stark. And I’m transgender.” 

And even though not everything was solved, everything still felt better.

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't a lot like my usual writing. I just felt inspired by one of the prompts in this exchange and I hope that my treat recipient likes it!


End file.
